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Investment Policy Brief 8, March 2017

Reflections on the Discussion of Investment Facilitation

‘Investment facilitation’ is a concept repeated in discussions pertaining to investment policies and treaties, including those addressing the reform of investment treaties. The discussion on investment facilitation is taking place in various fora and contexts. Multilateral institutions such as UNCTAD, the OECD and the World Bank have been engaged in this discussion. Investment facilitation has been on the agenda of the G20 as well. At the regional level, some country blocs, like the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), have developed their Investment Facilitation Action Plan. Moreover, selected countries have chosen to address this issue bilaterally, such as through investment treaties. For example, Brazil adopted the “Investment Cooperation and Facilitation Model”.

This note focuses on discussing the approaches to ‘investment facilitation’ being developed at the multilateral level and other fora and institutions. It specifically discusses issues pertaining to whether there would be an added value from developing hard multilateral rules in the area of ‘investment facilitation’, and the potential implications of such rules on policy and regulatory space.